Pet Loss Support

Sit with Henry

You don’t have to go through this alone. If you're here it means you love deeply, and you have lost, or are facing the loss, or someone who means the world to you.

Sometimes, what we need most from pet loss grief support, is a quiet place to sit, and someone who will simply listen. I created Henry for this purpose. For those early times in grief, when we are not quite ready to deal with real humans, but the "what if's" and "if only" thoughts in our heads are invading what little peace we can find. For those nights when we cannot sleep and there is no one to speak to, or who understands us, and we wish there was.

He is named Henry after my Golden Retriever Henry, who is in my header image and in photos all over this website. I was devastated when he had to be euthanised in 2013 when he suddenly collapsed and went blind in one eye, and was then found to have cancer behind his eye, which had spread to his chest. He was 15, and I am still crying typing this now.

He is wearing red, to represent my Cocker Spaniel Red, also in my header image and in photos all over this website, who I lost in 2016 due to a reaction to a flea treatment, and which also devastated me. So when I look at him, I see Henry and Red.

This Henry is a gentle pet loss support companion who spends his time in a quiet cottage, reading from a book filled with the stories of beloved animals. He listens without judgement, and speaks with care.

If you are a pet parent grieving the loss of a pet, or preparing to say goodbye, you are welcome to sit with him for a while.

You can share your companion’s name, a memory, or simply how you are feeling.

When you feel ready, you can begin here:

You don’t have to find the right words. You can simply type whatever you are feeling.

You are welcome here, for as long as you need.

When you feel ready, you may also want to join our 

Pet Loss Grief Support Group

I created the Pet Loss Matters Pet Loss Support Group because a website, however full of love and care, can only do so much. It can hold your story. It can offer words that feel true. But it cannot talk back to you. It cannot hold space for what you are going through right now, today, in this moment - and it cannot introduce you to the others who are sitting in exactly the same place.

That is what a community can do.

What You Will Find Inside

The group is a quiet, gentle space - nothing overwhelming, nothing rushed. When you join, you will find:

Daily affirmations, written with you in mind. Not empty positivity, but words that acknowledge the real weight of what you are carrying, and gently remind you that you are still here, still capable of love, still moving - even on the days it doesn't feel that way.

Daily reflections, questions and thoughts designed to help you sit with your grief rather than run from it. Grief doesn't want to be fixed. It wants to be witnessed. These are an invitation to do that.

Journalling prompts, to help you put words to the things that feel almost unspeakable. Sometimes writing is the only way through.

Henry. The physical version of Henry. Henry is a presence I created specifically for Pet Loss Matters - a guide, a gentle voice, someone who has read every story, tribute, diary and word written that has ever passed through this space and holds them all with care. The particular reason for his presence will become obvious as you work your way through the resources. There is a reason, and it is a good one.

He offers gentle guided practices, meditations, reflections, ever growing resources on grief, and ceremonial moments - including a shortly to be added candle ceremony where you can light a flame in memory of the one you have lost, alongside others who are doing the same. I am currently building a series of 3 video courses that I hope will help guide you through grief, because understanding it - even a little - can make it a lot less bewildering.

And each other. The other members of this group. People who understand, because they are living it too.

Why I Created It Now

I have spent two decades building a space where pet loss is taken seriously - where the grief of losing an animal companion is not minimised or rushed, where it is given the weight and dignity it deserves.

What I have learned, after all this time, is that the single most healing thing is not a quote, or a poem, or even an article that perfectly describes what you are feeling. It is knowing that someone else felt it too.

A community makes that possible in a way a website alone cannot. And I felt, after twenty years, that it was time to build one. A lot of the technology that I have used has not been available up until now, and I regularly see it being misused, so why not use it for good.

It Is Free to Join

The Pet Loss Matters Pet Loss Support Group is currently free to join. I want this to be accessible to anyone who needs it - grief doesn't wait until you can afford support.

All I ask is that you come as you are, and that you treat others in the group with the same gentleness you would want for yourself.

When you are ready, I would love to have you there.

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